This invention relates to display tables used in presenting merchandise for sale in wholesale and retail stores and in convention and traveling sales exhibits. Merchandisers typically wish to present their goods in an open manner and make the merchandise available to potential purchasers to examine and handle. This open display presents several problems for the merchandiser.
First, it is desirable for the merchandise to be presented in an open, available manner, but it is also desirable for the merchandise to be reasonably confined so the display area does not become messy and the merchandise pushed off the display table and onto the floor. This confinement is accomplished by providing sidewalls which extend upwardly from the display surface to enclose the merchandise.
While tables have existed which accomplish these goals, they are fabricated as a solid table presenting fixed side and end pieces. Such fixed component tables consume a great deal of space when in storage and require at least two people to move the table about the store. These tables are generally found in standard sizes ranging from 36" to 60" long and being 30" high and 24" to 30" wide. These common dimensions present a consumption of storage space ranging from 15 square feet to nearly 32 cubic feet per table not in use on the sales floor. Since retail space and convention space is always at a premium and costly, the need to reduce the amount of space used for the storage of display tables is very important to sales management.
A second problem with the existing fixed-side display tables is that two or more people are needed to move the tables around in a store. Also, the use of such large, fixed-side tables for a mobile exhibit is prohibited by the cost and inconvenience of moving such tables. It will be appreciated that these display tables cannot be made from lightweight materials and perform well in public sales floor situations. The pushing and shoving of the public against the table would tend to cause a light-weight table to slide from its position and disrupt the sales floor.
It will also be appreciated that as display tables of substantial weight cannot be avoided, it is beneficial if the table can be easily and compactly moved or shipped from one location to another. These benefits cannot be obtained in the conventional display table as it is not compact. The only current method for convenient shipment of such display tables is to remove any securing bolts and break the table down in to separate pieces for shipment. This consumes time and substantial effort and presents the potential for the loss of component parts and securing bolts.
Therefore a need exists for: a promotional display table which is sufficiently substantial so as to provide a solid display surface; a table which can be conveniently moved about the retail or show room floor by one or two people; a table which can be easily and compactly shipped from one location to another; a table which can be compacted into a configuration which consumes less storage space than does the same table when in use; and a table that when compacted does not present independent component parts which can become separated and lost.
These features and more a provided in the inventive folding promotional table present herein and which is fully described in the accompanying figures and written description.